Mastodon bones, tools found during dig near Johnsville

JOHNSVILLE — Dr. Richard M. “Mike” Gramly takes digging in the dirt quite seriously and he’s been doing it a long time.

The 71-year-old retired anthropology professor with a Ph.D. from Harvard spent a week in Morrow County recently helping unearth and identify mastodon remains and tools associated with that era thousands of years ago.

“I started digging when I was 9 years old. It’s all I ever wanted to do,” he said.

Gramly came here at the invitation of property owner Clint Walker. The diggers called him “Doc.”

“These animals had left the Earth by 12,200 years ago so it’s at least that old,” Gramly said. “The bone probably doesn’t have much collagen in it which makes it difficult for carbon dating. It could be from 13,500 years ago.”

This is a pilot dig, Gramly emphasized. In 2014 a group of Ashland University students led by Nigel Brush, associate professor of geology, did three days of digging at the site.

“A site like this is important enough that if you feel there is more to be learned there you want to check it out,” Gramly said.

Walker got the process started when he was putting in drainage tile and accidentally found something in his field.

“It was a tooth almost as big as your foot laying on top of the backhoe,” he recalled.

Walker looked up photos on the Internet and it turned out to be a mastodon tooth.

“I Googled it and the photo of what I saw online could have been our tooth. It got me excited,” he said.

Walker also contacted the Ohio Historical Society. His partner on the project has been Scott Donaldson.

It is named the Cedar Creek Mastodon of Morrow County. “We name them after the nearest body of water in the area,” Gramly said.

Brush wasn’t convinced there was human association with this animal, according to Gramly. “I felt otherwise,” he said.

The proof, Gramly maintains, is there are pieces of bone with cut marks likely from a stone axe. “The hand of man is on this animal,” he says without hesitation.

There is only a small window of time 10,000 to 11,000 years ago when mastodons and humans would have both been alive in the area, Brush said in a previous newspaper interview.

Gramly said that groups of people living in the region — tribes — would combine forces to bring down the giant animals, which could weigh 8 to 10 tons (bulls).

“This was an organized effort to kill this animal with precision and care. This was a very dangerous enterprise.”

Gramly estimates a group of as many as 30 people would work to bring down the mastodon. Spear throwers were used to launch spears at the Proboscideans, some of whom were 50 to 60 years old.

“It was part of a ceremony every 7 to 9 years; a social ritual … a manhood ritual for young men. People needed this type of organized activity.”

“Finding these bones and ivory artifacts is rare,” Gramly said.

Most artifacts are found about 14-16 inches below the surface.

“This is history. It’s too good not to do it,” Walker shared as a group of about 30 people worked in small groups on his farmland.

http://www.galioninquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2017/08/web1_dig2.jpgSome of the items found on Clint Walker’s farm are tagged. Courtesy Photo

Natalie Taylor and her son, Nate, sift through dirt looking for mastodon remains or artifacts during a dig this month.

http://www.galioninquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2017/08/web1_dig3.jpgNatalie Taylor and her son, Nate, sift through dirt looking for mastodon remains or artifacts during a dig this month. Courtesy Photo